At Roundtable, Congresswoman Lee, Southern Nevadans Share Devastating Impacts of Rising Health Care Costs and Medicaid Cuts

LAS VEGAS, NV – Yesterday, at Desert Breeze Community Center, Congresswoman Susie Lee (NV-03) joined local parents and a health care provider to sound the alarm on how the looming expiration of ACA tax credits and Congressional Republicans’ cuts to Medicaid would hurt families in southern Nevada.

“Instead of protecting health care, Republicans in Washington passed a bill gutting Medicaid earlier this year and took away tax credits that help working families afford their health insurance. This is only going to continue exacerbating our state's health care crisis and increase costs for all southern Nevadans,” said Congresswoman Susie Lee. “Today I heard from parents and health care providers who know all too well how these cuts and skyrocketing costs will affect our community. I’m fighting to protect these credits and lower costs, because no Nevadans should be forced to go without health care.”

Medicaid in Nevada:

• Nevada Medicaid data can be found HERE.
• Over 700,000 Nevadans receive health care coverage through Medicaid.
• Medicaid is not a controversial program—three quarters of Americans support it, including 63% of Republicans, 87% of Democrats, and 81% of Independents.

ACA Enhanced Premium Tax Credits in Nevada:

• Washington Republicans’ budget reconciliation bill failed to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits that help 85,000 Nevadans afford their health care—30,000 of whom live in Nevada’s 3^rd Congressional District.
• On top of expiring ACA tax credits, the average premium rate increased by 26% for plans on Nevada’s ACA exchange (Nevada Health Link).
• If Congress allows the ACA tax credits to expire:
  • Marketplace enrollees will pay $335 billion in higher premiums over the next ten years.
  • Families who receive ACA tax credits will see an average tax increase of $4,051 in 2027.
  • A 60-year-old couple in NV-03 earning about $80,000/year would see their premiums increase by more than $12,000 (a 178% increase).
  • A family of four earning $64,000 would see their premiums increase by over $2,500 (a 191% increase)
• As a result of these tax credits, nearly nine out of 10 Nevadans who enrolled in insurance through Nevada Health Link were eligible to receive financial support to help bring down the cost of monthly premiums.

“The problem is there is a lack of healthcare providers for the population that we have. At the end of the day, even with health insurance, it’s hard to get a provider to even see you.” said Clark County Medical Society President Dr. Brad Isaacs, MD. “So do the uninsured get health care? They go to an emergency room, and they may be seen as is required by law, but that’s only part of the problem. The preventative aspects of health care—they’re not given. The follow up—they don’t have the insurance, so they end up back in the emergency room. So what do the emergency rooms do? They tend to disappear. So the whole premise of taking care of people has been gutted.”

“It’s difficult for me to even talk about or to even imagine what our lives would be like and for other families also affected by developmental disabilities,” said Eve Eriksson, a Medicaid recipient with disabilities and the parent of a young child with disabilities. “The idea of losing those therapists that are our lifeline, that have opened up like this dark tunnel that my daughter was in and let me walk in and like really connect with my child. They want to take that away—not just from me, but so many families in southern Nevada are struggling with this and [who] can’t even get diagnosed, can’t even get the little bit of therapy that we have has changed my daughter’s life and has changed how much we can be included in the community.”

“I’m working as a 1099 contractor in outpatient mental health, which means I’m overworked and underpaid because of those same Medicaid reimbursement cuts,” said Katie Provost, LMSW, CSW-I, a social worker and single mom from Las Vegas, who depends on the ACA Premium Tax Credits to afford health care. “I am the sole provider—and I have to keep a roof over her head. Housing costs are skyrocketing, grocery costs are up. My income when I started my private practice was low enough that I was able to get it at $85 a month. With that 26% increase and taking away these tax credits, we’re going from $85 to almost $700 a month just for the premium. I’m fortunate that she’s healthy right now—but what happens if she slips and falls on the playground and breaks her arm? And I don’t have it—she wants to do gymnastics at $85 a month, and I don’t have it.”

Congresswoman Lee was joined by Clark County Medical Society President Dr. Brad Isaacs, MD; Eve Eriksson, a Medicaid recipient with disabilities and the parent of a young child with disabilities; and Katie Provost, LMSW, CSW-I, a social worker and single mom from Las Vegas, who depends on the ACA Premium Tax Credits to afford health care.

Congresswoman Lee has continued to sound the alarm on the health care crisis facing Nevada since Republicans in Washington took away tax credits that 30,000 southern Nevadans depend on to afford their health insurance. Without these credits, costs for families could rise by nearly 200%.

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